Gen Y and Baby Boomers Generations Apart on Security

Gen Y and older computer users tend to differ in the music they like, clothes they wear and hair styles. But apparently the generation gap extends to computer security too, says CheckPoint Software’s Zone Alarm business unit.

Gen Y is significantly less likely to use generally accepted security practices, such as anti-virus scanners, firewalls and network intrusion detection products on their computers, notes CheckPoint’s security survey. And the vast majority of this generation keeps 84 percent of their sensitive data, such as tax records, financial info and passwords on their computers without any protection. As an example, check out this summary chart of the difference between baby boomers and Gen Y about various security attacks:

The biggest differences between the generations involves email and social networking, or peer-to-peer networking, as you might have guessed, given the younger generation’s differing involvement in these activities.

One of the more surprising survey results is that half of all Gen Y participants indicated that they have experienced computer security issues in the past two years, compared to 42 percent of baby boomers. Given the lack of security software Gen Y uses, it’s surprising the gap between the two isn’t wider.

The survey included 1,245 PC users across the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany and Australia, who had purchasing responsibility for their computers in March.